I was shocked to learn that our beloved Prime Minister Abhisit is considering extending the free-gift 2,000-baht money (aka "economic stimulus") to other workers who are neither civil servants nor members of the Social Security(source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/30094118/Govt-may-extend-free-gift-stimulus-money-other-groups)

What a brilliant thought for an Oxford degree holder! Even Mr.Thaksin, considered by many as the father of populist policies in Thailand, cannot match our current PM's initiative.

Thaksin may have carried out several populist policies, but as far as I recall he had never given free-gift money to people! The village funds may have been mismanaged in some cases, but they were not free money. In successful cases, the funds allowed rural people to set up some kind of business in the community, generating jobs and income.

Now it's just free money, period. What the difference, really, between this free-money policy and vote-buying practices?

What is PM Abhisit's reason for the policy? Well, to stimulate the economy of course!!! Don't you know Keynesian economics? Government is supposed to spend when the economy is in a recession.

My dear PM, is that what you learn from all your economics courses at Oxford? I'm so, so disappointed.

Allow me to teach you, Mr.Prime Minister. Yes, the government needs to spend more during recession, but the question is how you spend the money.

One way that you can spend the money is to spend it in job-creating, income-generating, competitiveness-enhancing projects that have high multiplier effects. Invest in infrastructure, transportation, irrigation, agricultural development programs, education, IT and other megaprojects. You can even copy the village funds model that promote local business from Mr.Thaksin.

The other way of spending the government's money - the people's money to be exact - is to give it away for free, like you did and is considering doing more. This does not create any kind of long-lasting jobs.

Give people the rod and teach people how to fish, not the fish itself. Have you ever heard of that, my dear Prime Minister?

But I guess it's alright for you and your coalition members, since what this policy does is that it may win you some popularity now and perhaps some votes later in case elections arrive sooner than expected.

Oh! You also mentioned that the US has this free-gift money policy too! Well, what you didn't mention is the fact that this policy has received some strong criticisms here in the US! And have you forgotten the fact that it was precisely the US policy (or lack thereof) that is responsible for the current economic crisis?

More importantly, can't you come up with the policy by yourself? And if you ever try to imitate policy of the US, Mr.Prime Minister, please try to imitate the good ones, would you?

Anyway, very nice move overall, Mr.Prime Minister. The lesson I take from this is that one should never send his/her kids to Oxford unless one wants the kids to be dependent on others' ideas and become a spending machine.

I'm begining to see the premature end of the government some time soon.

......

Note: I'm quite unusually sarcastic and bitchy in this blog, but given the stupidity of the policy, I simply can't resist myself.